senses of the word "pur chaser." The word purchaser also has various significations. _PART III. Sometimes it comprehends every one who has acquired Different property otherwise than by descent. At other times it is confined to a person who has acquired property for valuable consideration, whether by sale, mortgage, or otherwise, though such a person is usually styled a purchaser for valuable consideration. And at other times it is used in a still narrower and popular sense, to signify a person who has bought property. 1250. kinds of The different modes of acquiring property according to a Specific more specific distribution, and so far as they are connected titles. with conveyancing, are these I. Marriage. II. Descent, Succession, and Administration. III. Escheat. IV. Occupancy. V. Alluvion and Dereliction. VI. Prescription. VII. Adverse Possession and the Operation of the Statute of Limitations. VIII. Forfeiture. IX. Bankruptcy and Insolvency. X. Alienation. 1251. marriage. Curtesy and dower arise by marriage; but these we Title by have already considered. And the law as to the acquisition of personal property by marriage is stated in the chapter on Married Women, in the Fourth Part of this Compendium. 1252. TITLE I. OF DESCENT, SUCCESSION, AND ADMINISTRATION. CHAPTER I. OF DESCENT. CH. 1, s. 1. Definition of SECTION I. Of Descent generally. PT. III. T. 1, DESCENT or hereditary succession is the title whereby, on the death of the owner of an estate in fee or in tail, without descent- having disposed of it in his lifetime or by his will, it deof an heir-volves on his heir. An heir, therefore, is he upon whom the law casts the estate immediately on the death of the of an inherit- ancestor; and an estate so descended on the heir is called an inheritance (a). 1253. ance. Lineal and collateral descent. Consan guinity or kindred. Lineal descent is the devolution of real estate to an heir who is lineally related to the last deceased owner, whether as an ancestor or as a descendant. Collateral descent is the devolution of real estate to an heir who is only collaterally related to the last deceased owner (b). 1254. The right of hereditary succession depends on the nature and the several degrees of consanguinity or kindred. Consanguinity or kindred is defined to be, vinculum personarum ab eodem stipite descendentium, the connection or (a) 2 Bl. Com. 201; 3 Cruise T. 29, c. 2, § 1. (b) As to the word "descendants" meaning collateral descendants, see Best v. Stonehewer, 34 Beav. 68; 2 D. J. & S. 537. As to the word "descendants" not being confined to children, see Ralph v. Carrick, L. R. 11 Ch. D. (Ap.) 873. CH. 1, s. 1. relation of persons descended from the same stock. And it PT. III. T. 1, is either lineal or collateral. 1255. sanguinity. Lineal consanguinity is that connection or relation by Lineal conblood which subsists between persons who are descended from the same common ancestor in one and the same direct or straight line, so as that each younger one of them is the immediate offspring of the next elder of them; as in the case of father, grandfather, great-grandfather. 1256. lineal con Every generation in direct lineal consanguinity con- Degrees of stitutes a different degree, reckoning either upwards or sanguinity. downwards. So that the father and son of John Stiles are each related to him in the first degree, and his grandfather and grandson are each related to him in the second. degree (a). 1257. consan Collateral consanguinity is that connection or relation Collateral by blood which subsists between persons, who, although guinity. descended from the same common ancestor, are not descended from him in one and the same direct or straight line, but in different lines or collaterally to each other, so that no one of such persons is the offspring or descendant of another of them (b). Thus, if John Stiles has two sons, and each of them has a daughter, these two sons are collaterally related to each other, and so are their daughters collaterally related to each other; and each son is collaterally related to the daughter of the other son. For the sons and daughters are all descended from the same common stock, John Stiles, but in two different lines, so that the sons are not descended from each other; nor are the daughters; nor is the daughter of one son descended from the other son. 1258. computing The method of computing degrees of collateral consan- Mode of guinity by the canon law, which our law has adopted, is degrees of this we begin at the common ancestor, and reckon down- consan (a) 2 Bl. Com. 203; Co. Litt. 23 b. (b) 2 Bl. Com. 202-4; 3 Cruise T. 29, c. 2, § 5; Co. Litt. 24 a. collateral CH. 1, s. 1. guinity by PT. III. T. 1, wards, and in whatever degree the two persons are distant from the common ancestor, or the most remote of them is distant from him, that is the degree in which they are related to each other. Thus A. and his brother are related in the first degree; A. and his nephew are related in the the canon and the common law. By the civil second degree (a). law. Nemo est hæres viventis. rent. Heirs presumptive. Whereas the civilians count upwards, from either of the persons related to the common stock, and then downwards to the other, reckoning a degree for each person, both ascending and descending. So that according to their computation, A. and his brother are related in the second degree; A. and his nephew in the third degree (b). 1259. No person can be the actual complete heir of another till the death of the latter: nemo est hæres viventis. Before that time the person who is next in the line of succession Heirs appa- is called an heir apparent or an heir presumptive. Heirs apparent are those whose right of inheritance is indefeasible provided they outlive their ancestor; as the eldest son or his issue, who must, by the course of the common law be heir to the father, whenever he happens to die. Heirs presumptive are those who, if the ancestor should die immediately, would, under existing circumstances, be his heirs, but whose right of inheritance may be defeated by the contingency of some nearer heir being born. Thus, a brother or a nephew, whose presumptive title may be destroyed by the birth of a child, whether son or daughter, or a daughter whose hope of succession may be destroyed by the birth of a son, is an heir presumptive (c). 1260. Requisites to support a claim of heirship. Those who would claim as heirs, must be, first, legitimate; secondly, by the old law, natural-born subjects, or naturalized, or made denizens; thirdly, by the old law, not attainted of treason or felony; fourthly, by the old law, (a) 2 Bl. Com. 206; 3 Cruise T. (e) 2 Bl. Com. 208; Co. Litt. 8b; 3 Cruise T. 29, c. 3, § 2:2 Jarm. Wills, 2nd ed. 57, 58. CH. 1, s. 1. not obliged to claim through any ancestor whose blood PT. III. T. 1, was corrupted by attainder (a). 1261. of blood. With regard to the fourth of these requisites, which Corruption involves a negation of what is termed corruption of blood, a person attainted of treason or felony was, by the common law, neither allowed to retain his former estate, nor to inherit any future one, nor to transmit any inheritance to his issue, either immediately from himself or mediately through himself from any remoter ancestor; for his inheritable blood, which was necessary either to hold, or to take, or to transmit any feudal property, was corrupted and extinguished; so that the estates resulted back and escheated to the lord, subject to the operation of the superior law of forfeiture (b). Thus, where A. and B. were brothers, and A. was attainted, and had issue C., and died, and C. purchased lands and died without issue, it was held that B. his uncle could not inherit from him, because he must derive his descent through A., who was the mediate ancestor and incapable. And if a man had two sons and the eldest was attainted, and afterwards the father died seised of an estate in fee, the younger could not inherit from the father; for no other could be heir to the father than the eldest son, while he was alive. It was, however, a general rule that the attainder of a person who need not be mentioned in the derivation of the descent, did not impede, however remote the ancestor might be. Thus, in the case of the attainder of an elder son, if such elder son died in the lifetime of his father without issue, the younger son would then inherit from his father; because he would derive his descent from him without claiming through or mentioning his elder brother (c). And as, by the old law, the descent from one brother to another was considered as Litt. 8 a. (a) 3 Cruise T. 29, c. 3, § 7 Burton, 329. See infra, on Aliens. (b) See 2 Bl. Com. 252-6; Co. VOL. I. (c) 3 Cruise T. 29, c. 2, § 2730; 2 Bl. Com. 252-255. M M |